367 F.

3d 38

Emily McINTYRE, as Administrator of the Estate of John L.

McIntyre; Christopher McIntyre, as Co-administrator of the
Estate of John L. McIntyre, Plaintiffs, Appellants,
v.
UNITED STATES of America, Defendant, Appellee,
H. Paul Rico; John Morris; John J. Connolly; Roderick
Kennedy; Robert Fitzpatrick; James Ring; James Greenleaf;
James Ahearn; Kevin J. Weeks; James J. Bulger; Stephen
Flemmi; John Does, Nos. 1-50, Defendants.
Lawrence A. Wheeler, Individually and as Special
Administrator of the Estate of Roger M. Wheeler; Patricia J.
Wheeler, Individually and as Special Administratrix of the
Estate of Roger M. Wheeler; Pamela (Wheeler) Norberg; David
B. Wheeler; Mark K. Wheeler, Plaintiffs, Appellants,
v.
United States of America, Defendant, Appellee,
John J. Connolly, Jr.; John M. Morris; H. Paul Rico; Robert
Fitzpatrick; James A. Ring; James Greenleaf; James Ahearn;
James J. Bulger, a/k/a Whitey; Stephen J. Flemmi, a/k/a The
Rifleman; John V. Martorano; John Does, Nos. 1-50,
Defendants.
No. 03-1791.
No. 03-1823.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard March 2, 2004.
Decided May 10, 2004.

William E. Christie, with whom Steven M. Gordon and Shaheen &

Gordon, P.A. were on brief, for appellants Emily McIntyre and
Christopher McIntyre.

Richard A. Olderman, Attorney, Appellate Staff, with whom Robert S.

Greenspan, Attorney, Appellate Staff, Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney
General, and Michael J. Sullivan, United States Attorney, were on brief,
for appellee United States in the McIntyre case.
Frank A. Libby, Jr., with whom Douglas S. Brooks and Kelly, Libby &
Hoopes, P.C. were on brief, for appellants Lawrence A. Wheeler, Patricia
J. Wheeler, Pamela (Wheeler) Norberg, David B. Wheeler, and Mark K.
Wheeler.
Richard A. Olderman, Attorney, Appellate Staff, with whom Robert S.
Greenspan, Attorney, Appellate Staff, Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney
General, Michael J. Sullivan, United States Attorney, and Jeffrey S.
Bucholtz, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, were on brief, for appellee
United States in the Wheeler case.
Before LYNCH, Circuit Judge, CYR, Senior Circuit Judge, and
HOWARD, Circuit Judge.
LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

These two cases involve claims against the United States under the Federal
Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. 2671 et seq., arising out of alleged
wrongful actions of FBI agents.

On September 15, 1999, a diligent federal trial judge sitting in an organized

crime case issued a lengthy opinion outlining a possible pattern of corruption
involving at least two FBI agents, John Connolly and his supervisor John
Morris, and two notorious Boston criminals, James "Whitey" Bulger and
Stephen "the Rifleman" Flemmi. See United States v. Salemme, 91 F.Supp.2d
141 (D.Mass.1999). Such corruption had been rumored but had been denied by
the FBI.

The 1999 opinion by Judge Wolf revealed that Bulger and Flemmi, who were
leaders of the Winter Hill Gang, a crime syndicate involved in murder, bribery,
extortion, loansharking, and gambling operations, had been high-level FBI
informants since the 1970s, aiding the agency in its investigation of La Cosa
Nostra, a rival crime syndicate. The opinion raised the prospect that Bulger and
Flemmi had received numerous benefits from the FBI in return, including
protection from prosecution, and at times, access to the names of informants
who were themselves providing information to the FBI about the criminal
activities of Bulger and Flemmi. Id. at 148-63, 322. Some of the informants

may have been killed as a result, and the murderous activities of Bulger and
Flemmi covered up. Id. at 208-13.
4

The opinion speculated that Agent Connolly may have disclosed to Bulger and
Flemmi the identity of an individual, John McIntyre, who was an informant for
the local Quincy police and was debriefed by the FBI, United States Customs
Service, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Id. at 213-15.
McIntyre disappeared roughly six weeks after an October 17, 1984 interview
with FBI Agent Roderick Kennedy, in which McIntyre had linked Bulger to
gun-running and drug-smuggling operations. Id. His body was found fifteen
years later, on January 14, 2000, in a makeshift grave near Boston. But the
opinion, published in September 1999, ultimately concluded that it could not be
determined whether FBI Agent Kennedy had, in fact, shared this information
about McIntyre with Connolly and whether Connolly, in turn, had told Bulger.
Id. at 214-15. That was because, as the court said later, "important FBI
documents concerning John McIntyre were ... improperly withheld by agents of
the Boston FBI until it was too late to question relevant witnesses concerning
them." United States v. Flemmi, 195 F.Supp.2d 243, 249-50 (D.Mass.2001).

The opinion also indicated the likelihood that Agent Connolly had disclosed to
Bulger the name of another informant as to Bulger's crimes, Brian Halloran. In
January 1982, Halloran told two FBI agents that Bulger and Flemmi had
caused the 1981 murder of a Tulsa businessman, Roger Wheeler. Connolly
learned of Halloran's cooperation and disclosed it to Bulger. Halloran was
murdered in May 1982. Salemme, 91 F.Supp.2d at 208-210. Agent Morris
testified to this sequence of events in hearings before Judge Wolf in April 1998.

Agent Connolly was indicted on October 11, 2000 and charged with numerous
crimes, including "alert[ing] Bulger and Flemmi to the identity of confidential
law enforcement informants in order to protect Bulger's and Flemmi's ongoing
criminal activities" and taking other steps to protect Bulger and Flemmi.
Connolly was charged with inducing Agent Morris to do the same, in violation
of Morris's legal obligations. Among the several racketeering acts charged was
that Connolly had told Bulger and Flemmi of Halloran's statements that Bulger
and Flemmi had caused Wheeler's murder. In turn, the indictment charged,
Bulger caused Halloran to be murdered. Connolly was convicted, and his
conviction was affirmed on appeal. United States v. Connolly, 341 F.3d 16 (1st
Cir.2003).

On May 25, 2000, the estate of John McIntyre, through its administrator
(McIntyre's mother, Emily McIntyre) and co-administrator (McIntyre's brother,
Christopher McIntyre), filed an administrative claim against the United States

under the FTCA.1 The essence of the theory behind the claim was that the FBI
had (i) directly caused the death of John McIntyre, when Agent Connolly
informed Bulger and Flemmi that McIntyre was cooperating with certain
authorities investigating Bulger and Flemmi, thus signing McIntyre's death
warrant, and (ii) indirectly caused McIntyre's death through the protection the
FBI afforded Bulger and Flemmi, which encouraged and enabled them to
commit murders, including that of McIntyre.2 A second administrative
complaint was filed on June 8, 2000.
8

On May 11, 2001, the estate of Roger Wheeler, the murdered Tulsa
businessman, filed an administrative claim under the FTCA against the United
States. The theory of the claim was that the FBI's illicit protection of Bulger
and Flemmi had facilitated the murder of Roger Wheeler.3 This legal theory
differed from that articulated in the McIntyre case, as there was no direct
relationship between the FBI and Wheeler.

The United States failed to act on either claim within the required six-month
period, thus giving both estates the option, which they took, of treating those
claims as having been denied. See 28 U.S.C. 2675(a). In due course, both
filed suit against the United States as well as various FBI agents in the Boston
office, Bulger, Flemmi, and other members of the Winter Hill Gang.

10

McIntyre's claims against the United States consisted of (1) three counts under
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 229, 2 for civil conspiracy, negligence, and supervisory
liability, causing McIntyre's death and (2) three counts under Mass. Gen. Laws
ch. 229, 6, corresponding to the three counts under 2, for negligently
causing McIntyre's conscious suffering while he was kidnapped, tortured and
killed.

11

The claims of the Wheeler estate were joined by Roger Wheeler's widow and
four of his five children, suing individually.4 The Wheelers' claims against the
United States sought to hold it directly and vicariously liable for (1) two counts
of tortious conduct causing Wheeler's death under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 229,
2; (2) two counts of causing Roger Wheeler's conscious suffering the moments
immediately before his murder under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 229, 6; and (3)
one count of causing emotional distress to Wheeler and his family.

12

The United States moved to dismiss in both suits on the ground that neither set
of plaintiffs filed their administrative claims within the required two-year
period from the accrual of the cause of action. See 28 U.S.C. 2401(b). The
district court agreed in both cases. McIntyre v. United States, 254 F.Supp.2d

183, 193 (D.Mass.2003); Wheeler v. United States, No. 02-10464-RCL

(D.Mass. March 31, 2003). This consolidated appeal is from the dismissals of
the FTCA claims against the United States and reviews the single issue, on two
sets of facts, of when the claims "accrued" for FTCA purposes. To be timely,
the McIntyre claims had to accrue on or after May 25, 1998, and the Wheeler
claims on or after May 11, 1999.
I.
13

The following facts are presented in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs.
See Muniz-Rivera v. United States, 326 F.3d 8, 11 (1st Cir.2003). The facts are
drawn from the two complaints and the materials submitted to the district court
on the respective motions to dismiss. Gonzalez v. United States, 284 F.3d 281,
288 (1st Cir.2002) (on a motion to dismiss pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1),
the court may look to supplemental materials in addition to pleadings). We also
draw on facts found in United States v. Salemme, supra.

14

A. Factual and Procedural Background Relevant to McIntyre

15

In mid-October 1984, John McIntyre began cooperating with Richard Bergeron

of the Quincy Police Department. Salemme, 91 F.Supp.2d at 213. McIntyre told
Bergeron that he was an engineer on a ship named the Valhalla that had been
used in an unsuccessful attempt to deliver guns and ammunition from
Massachusetts to the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Ireland. He said that he
worked for Joseph Murray, who secretly owned the Valhalla and was closely
connected to Bulger, and that Bulger was involved in the attempted arms
shipment through his associates Kevin Weeks and Patrick Nee. McIntyre also
mentioned Flemmi. Id. Bergeron told Agent Roderick Kennedy, an FBI liaison
officer, that McIntyre was cooperating and that McIntyre had linked Bulger and
his associates to the Valhalla. Bergeron arranged for agents from the DEA and
United States Customs Service, along with Agent Kennedy, to participate in
McIntyre's debriefing. Kennedy and a Customs agent interviewed McIntyre on
October 17, 1984. McIntyre told them that Bulger's associate Patrick Nee had
traveled to Ireland to meet the Valhalla. Id. at 214. McIntyre also told them that
Murray was partners in a separate drug smuggling operation with "an individual
named Whitey who operates a liquor store in South Boston," whom Kennedy
understood to be Bulger. Id. Around November 30, 1984, McIntyre
disappeared.

16

Christopher McIntyre, John's brother, stated by affidavit that he and Emily

McIntyre, John's mother, filed multiple missing persons reports with the Quincy
police. Christopher said that the government told him on one occasion that the

"mob" had murdered John, but later told him that John was "alive, a fugitive
from justice and would be prosecuted if caught." Emily also stated by affidavit
that she had made "repeated requests" to the government for information or
help in finding her son but received none. Instead, she said, government agents
told her that "John was a fugitive." In a 2000 Boston Herald interview, both
Emily and Christopher said that they had suspected Bulger's hand in John's
disappearance in 1984 but said nothing out of fear.
17

On April 15, 1986, although McIntyre was still missing, a grand jury indicted
him along with Murray, Nee, and four others for their roles in the Valhalla
operation and drug smuggling. Bulger and Flemmi were not named as
defendants or otherwise mentioned in the indictment. The grand jury returned a
superseding indictment on May 8, 1986, which again did not name Bulger or
Flemmi as defendants. The court then issued a warrant for McIntyre's arrest.
On September 6, 1995, a note appeared in the docket of the Valhalla
prosecution: "Case reopened as to John Crawley, John McIntyre, Michael
Nigro. NOTE: Case previously closed in error. Defendants Crawley, McIntyre
and Nigro remain fugitives." The case remained open until March 20, 2000,
when McIntyre's death had been confirmed.

18

Meanwhile, on April 16, 1986, shortly after the first indictment, attorney John
Loftus, acting on behalf of Emily, Chris, and Patricia McIntyre, John's sister,
sent a letter to the Attorney General, United States Customs Service, DEA,
State Department, and United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts.
The FBI was not one of the addressees on the letter. The letter, whose subject
line was "Re: Wrongful Death of John L. McIntyre," alleged that John McIntyre
was a government informant concerning IRA gun-running in Boston, that
federal authorities leaked his informant status to the British government, and
that the British government told the IRA, resulting in McIntyre's abduction and
murder.

19

On June 2, 1986, Emily McIntyre asked the Veterans Administration (VA) to

erect a headstone marker for her son at the Massachusetts National Cemetery.

20

On September 20, 1988, the Boston Globe ran a report describing Bulger as an
FBI informant and raising the possibility that Bulger "has been able to exploit
his cachet with the FBI" to evade investigation and apprehension by the state
police and the DEA. The article suggested that the FBI may have tipped Bulger
off to recording devices in his home and car and to the timing of sting
operations. But it did not raise the possibility that the FBI leaked information to
Bulger about informants in his own organization or shielded him from
prosecution for crimes like murder. Nor did the article mention McIntyre. The

article reported that

21

State Police officials ... asked the FBI to conduct an internal inquiry. The FBI
cleared two agents, and the FBI leadership remains outraged at the suggestion
that any of its own would engage in that kind of treachery.

22

James F. Ahearn, special agent in charge of the FBI in Boston, was unequivocal
when asked last month if Bulger has had relations with the FBI that have left
him free of its scrutiny.

23

"That is absolutely untrue," said Ahearn. "We have not had evidence that would
warrant it and if we do develop anything of an evidentiary nature, we will
pursue it. We specifically deny that there has been special treatment of this
individual." He declined to make any further comment on the matter and
instructed Connolly not to speak on the subject.

24

In 1989, Emily McIntyre and Loftus published Valhalla's Wake: The IRA, MI6,
and the Assassination of a Young American (Atlantic Monthly Press). In the
book, they indicated awareness that John had ties to the IRA and the "Mob"
and that he faced possible "Mob[] retribution" for his cooperation with the
government. They stated that John's blue pickup truck had been spotted at
Murray's place of business and that it was later found under a bridge with his
uncashed VA check inside. But they ultimately theorized that British
intelligence was responsible for John's murder. Based on the McIntyre family's
own investigation into John's death, which involved interviews with "an IRA
courier" and a "source" within British intelligence, the book speculated that
British intelligence had its own mole in the Valhalla, discovered from United
States Customs agents that McIntyre was an informant on a related drugsmuggling operation, falsely told the IRA that McIntyre was an informant on
the Valhalla operation to divert attention from the British mole, and then
murdered McIntyre to prevent him from refuting the story.

25

In October 1991, Emily McIntyre applied to the VA for death benefits under
her son's policy.

26

In the early to mid-1990s, the Boston Globe published a series of articles on

McIntyre's disappearance. One of those articles, appearing on December 24,
1992, stated that Sean O'Callaghan, a former IRA operative, had tipped off the
Irish police to the 1984 Valhalla shipment and that the IRA may have
mistakenly suspected McIntyre of being the leak and murdered him. The story,
which quoted Emily McIntyre, said that "[m]ost authorities believe McIntyre

was done in by his associates,... most of whom were in the now-defunct Winter
Hill Gang" headed by Bulger. The article noted that when Bulger heard that the
Valhalla had been seized, he said, in a conversation secretly recorded by DEA
bugs in his apartment, "That's our stuff," and that McIntyre was last seen with
Patrick Nee, a Bulger associate. But the story made no connection between the
FBI and McIntyre's death. In fact, in response to Emily McIntyre's theory that
her son had been killed by British intelligence, the article noted that "federal
investigators familiar with the Valhalla case say there is no evidence that
McIntyre was fingered by any agent of the US, Irish, or British governments"
(emphasis added).
27

On January 29, 1995, a second article in the Boston Globe reported that
"authorities in the United States" had called "ludicrous" any claim that "the
U.S. government negligently allowed [McIntyre] to be killed." The story
indicated that government officials were not the only ones who might have
known that McIntyre was an informant, stating that "[r]umors that [John]
McIntyre was talking [to the federal government] were rampant" and citing
Emily McIntyre as saying that Customs agents had "openly tailed [her son],
and were parked outside her home the last night she saw her son." Then, on
December 11, 1996 and June 14, 1997, the Boston Globe published two more
articles reporting that law enforcement officials believed McIntyre had been
killed by the Winter Hill Gang. The December 11 article, which quoted Emily
McIntyre, stated that "[f]ederal agents believe McIntyre was killed by Boston
gangsters who suspected him of informing against them." The June 14 article
was more specific. It theorized that Bulger had compromised the Valhalla
operation, after taking a hefty profit from it, by tipping off the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA). Relying on witness statements and other evidence,
the article suggested that, afterwards, Bulger and Flemmi nonetheless tortured
McIntyre to find out what he had told authorities about the gun-running and
marijuana smuggling operations, and then killed him, disposing of his body at
sea. Neither article made any mention of FBI involvement.

28

At around the time of the second article, in 1997, more details of the
relationship between Bulger and Flemmi and their FBI handlers came to light
through the prosecution of Flemmi in the case of United States v. Salemme, 91
F.Supp.2d 141 (D.Mass.1999). In Salemme, on January 10, 1995, a grand jury
indicted Bulger and Flemmi, along with five others who were members of
either La Cosa Nostra or the Winter Hill Gang, of RICO conspiracy and various
other federal crimes. Id. at 301. Three more superseding indictments were
obtained, with the last coming on July 2, 1996. Id. at 306. None of the
indictments mentioned McIntyre's disappearance, although several referred to
murders committed by Bulger and Flemmi.

29

In April 1997, in the process of addressing the defendants' motion to suppress

some electronic surveillance evidence, Judge Wolf, who was presiding over the
Salemme case, discovered earlier filings in the case before a magistrate judge
that suggested that Bulger and Flemmi were FBI informants. Id. at 308. This
information raised questions about, inter alia, whether the FBI had given
Bulger and Flemmi immunity from prosecution for their ongoing criminal
conduct.

30

In a June 6, 1997 order, over the FBI's objections, Judge Wolf revealed that the
FBI had, in response to a court order, confirmed in a closed hearing that Bulger
was an informant. United States v. Salemme, 978 F.Supp. 364, 365
(D.Mass.1997). The order also revealed that Flemmi was an informant. Id. at
373. In a June 25, 1997 affidavit, Flemmi stated that Agent Morris had assured
him that he and Bulger could be involved in any criminal activities short of
murder and would be protected by the FBI. Salemme, 91 F.Supp.2d at 310.
Flemmi's affidavit was not sealed and an account of his statements was
published the next day in the Boston Globe. Several months later, on September
3, 1997, Flemmi submitted under seal a motion to dismiss, claiming, inter alia,
that the FBI had promised him immunity. Id. at 311. The motion was unsealed,
over government objections, on September 10. Id.

31

Several months later, on December 5, 1997, the Boston Herald made public
that the Department of Justice had conducted its own probe into Bulger and
Flemmi's relationship with their handlers. The article reported that Judge Wolf
had said at a hearing the previous day that the Office of Professional
Responsibility had launched an internal probe and found "no evidence of
continuing criminal conduct within the statute of limitations" by Agents Morris
and Connolly. Some details of this investigation were later revealed in Judge
Wolf's opinion in Salemme, issued on September 15, 1999: In late June 1997,
the Attorney General established a task force of Department of Justice and FBI
personnel to investigate the allegations of misconduct raised by Flemmi and the
motions to suppress. That task force conducted its investigation in July and
early August 1997, and issued a confidential report to the Attorney General.
With the agreement of the government, the court reviewed the Executive
Summary of that report and some of the documents that the investigation
generated in order to decide certain issues concerning discovery....

32

91 F.Supp.2d at 310. Nothing in the record indicates that the underlying facts of
the Office of Professional Responsibility investigation were otherwise made
public at the time. But from our review of the docket in the Salemme case, it is
clear that the government repeatedly sought, at around this time, to keep
Flemmi's allegations of government misconduct and the government's response

to them under seal.

33

Judge Wolf held a series of evidentiary hearings from January to October 1998
on the subject of Flemmi's claim of immunity. Id. at 312. These hearings were
open to the public. Emily McIntyre attended part of a hearing on April 15,
1998. In an article the next day, the Boston Herald reported that at that hearing,
Robert Stutman, the former local chief of the DEA, testified that "agents in his
office `swore' that the FBI compromised their Flemmi-Bulger probe to the point
where the pair's bureau `handler' was unwelcome at DEA's offices." Stutman
admitted, however, that he had no proof of FBI wrongdoing and that he
"d[id]n't know now" if "the FBI [had] burn[ed] us on [the] investigation."
Nothing in the record indicates that Stutman ever mentioned McIntyre in his
testimony.

34

One week later, on April 22, Morris testified, under a grant of immunity, that he
had told Connolly in early 1982 that another FBI informant, Brian Halloran,
had said that Bulger and Flemmi asked him to murder Roger Wheeler. Id. at
209. Morris testified that Connolly told him that he had passed the information
on to Bulger and Flemmi. Halloran was murdered shortly thereafter on May 11,
1982. The Boston Herald ran a story on April 23 summarizing Morris's
testimony. As with Stutman, nothing indicates that Morris ever mentioned
McIntyre in his testimony.

35

On May 20, 1998, another DEA agent, Albert G. Reilly, testified about the
Valhalla. The Boston Globe summarized Reilly's testimony the next day with
the headline "DEA unable to link Bulger to IRA guns." The story recounted
that "authorities now believed that Bulger had tipped off authorities to the gunsmuggling operation and that he and Flemmi tortured a Quincy man, John
McIntyre, who was suspected of cooperating with the authorities" (emphasis
added). The story did not say, however, that the FBI had tipped off Bulger as to
McIntyre's identity as an informant. The article also stated that Reilly had
testified that he, like Stutman, believed the DEA's investigation of Bulger and
Flemmi had been compromised by the FBI but had no way to prove it.

36

In early June 1998, after the May 25, 1998 critical date for accrual of the
McIntyre claims had passed, Richard Bergeron of the Quincy Police
Department testified about McIntyre's cooperation and disappearance. Id. at
213. As best we can tell, Bergeron's testimony was the first piece of evidence
presented in the Salemme proceedings that provided direct information about
McIntyre's disappearance. Bergeron testified that McIntyre was "petrified" of
the people he was implicating and that McIntyre was not the type of potential
witness whose cooperation could be publicly disclosed. Bergeron then said that

he told FBI Agent Kennedy that McIntyre had implicated Bulger and his
associates in the Valhalla operation. He testified that he had arranged for
Kennedy and a Customs agent to interview McIntyre. Id. at 214. Kennedy had
testified earlier, on April 14, 1998, that he and Connolly often exchanged
information. Other evidence also indicated that Kennedy had participated in
protecting Bulger and Flemmi from investigation on previous occasions. Id.
But, because the government, apparently in violation of discovery orders, did
not produce Kennedy's reports of his interview of McIntyre until after Kennedy
had testified, Kennedy was never questioned about whether he had passed on
the information about McIntyre to Connolly and, if so, whether Connolly had
told Bulger and Flemmi. Kennedy was not recalled to the witness stand to
provide this information. Id.
37

During Bergeron's cross-examination, the prosecution asked him what

individuals, to his knowledge, knew that McIntyre was cooperating with
authorities and might have passed on that information. When defense counsel
objected, the prosecution stated that its line of questioning was in response to
the implication that "it was the FBI who may have leaked this [information to
Bulger and Flemmi] when there's literally a dozen people" other than the FBI
who could have done so (emphasis added). The prosecution was explicit that
the evidence was so speculative that the court "shouldn't infer that there was
some leak from the FBI that led to Mr. McIntyre's disappearance" (emphasis
added). The prosecution then went on to establish that, in addition to the FBI,
the Quincy police, the Customs Service, and the DEA all knew of McIntyre's
cooperation. The prosecution also established that McIntyre had spoken to
authorities about a number of "notorious criminals," as well as the IRA, "[a]ll
of whom would have had a motive to make him disappear."

38

Judge Wolf published a 260-page opinion in the Salemme case on September

15, 1999, well after the cut-off date for accrual of McIntyre's claims. As to
McIntyre's disappearance, he concluded,

39

[T]here is circumstantial evidence to suggest that Kennedy may have told

Connolly about McIntyre's cooperation and claims and, in view [of] the
Halloran matter, reason to be concerned that Connolly may have told Bulger
and Flemmi. These issues cannot, however, be resolved on the present record.

40

Id. at 214-15.

41

McIntyre's body was recovered on January 14, 2000. Kevin Weeks, a Bulger
associate, led law enforcement to McIntyre's makeshift grave. Flemmi, 195

F.Supp.2d at 251 n. 45.

42

On May 25, 2000, McIntyre's estate filed a notice of tort claim with the FBI.

43

On September 27, 2000, a grand jury returned a superseding indictment of

Bulger and Flemmi that alleged that in October or November of 1984, Bulger
and Flemmi learned that McIntyre was cooperating with the FBI and Customs
Service regarding Bulger's involvement in both the Valhalla operation and the
importation of marijuana by boat into Boston, and, as a result, kidnapped and
murdered McIntyre. The indictment did not say how Bulger and Flemmi
discovered McIntyre's cooperation. On October 11, 2000, Connolly was
indicted for his role in various murders committed by Bulger and Flemmi, but
not for any role in McIntyre's murder.

44

On March 8, 2001, McIntyre's estate filed suit in federal district court.

McIntyre's claim was the first administrative claim and first federal action to be
filed arising from the FBI's relationship with Bulger and Flemmi. On October
15, 2001, the United States moved to dismiss pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1)
on the ground that McIntyre's estate had failed to present its administrative
claims within two years of accrual, as required by the FTCA, 28 U.S.C.
2401(b).

45

On March 31, 2002, the district court granted the motion, finding that the
claims had accrued before April 1998. The court reasoned that, prior to April
1998, the McIntyres clearly believed John McIntyre to be dead and had
sufficient facts to support a reasonable inference that Bulger and Flemmi had
killed him, based on local press reports that McIntyre was last seen with Nee, a
Bulger associate, and that Bulger ran the Valhalla operation. The court also
determined that the McIntyres had enough information to form the theory that
"the FBI was at least negligent in [its] handling of Bulger and Flemmi." The
court relied principally on (1) the FBI's acknowledgment in 1997 that Bulger
and Flemmi were informants and (2) the April 15, 1998 hearing, attended in
part by Emily McIntyre, in which DEA Agent Stutman testified about his
suspicions that the FBI had compromised a DEA investigation of Bulger and
Flemmi. Final judgment was entered on motion of McIntyre's estate. The estate
timely appealed.

46

B. Factual and Procedural Background Relevant to Wheeler

47

Roger Wheeler, a Tulsa businessman, owned World Jai Alai (WJA), which
operated facilities where spectators could bet on Jai Alai matches. Salemme, 91

F.Supp.2d at 208. John Callahan, who had ties to the Winter Hill Gang, was
president of WJA. Id. Wheeler suspected that Callahan was skimming money
from WJA for members of the Winter Hill Gang, including Bulger and Flemmi.
Wheeler fired Callahan and began an audit of WJA's financial operations. Id. at
209. Before the audit was completed, on May 27, 1981, Wheeler was shot to
death while sitting in his car in the parking lot of a Tulsa country club. Id. at
207-08.
48

The Wheeler murder remained unsolved for many years. In the spring of 1995,
David and Lawrence Wheeler, two sons of Roger Wheeler, visited the FBI's
office in Tulsa to deliver some of their father's records requested by the office.
They stated that they were unhappy with the lack of progress in the
investigation. According to David Wheeler's affidavit, FBI Agent Jack Hawkins
replied, "[I]f we do that, we will have to go wherever the evidence might lead
us ... and you know, it might actually take us to some involvement on the part
of your mother. Are you willing to see your mother go to jail?" David Wheeler
interpreted this as a threat intended to deter future complaints about the FBI's
lack of progress.

49

The Tulsa World and the Daily Oklahoman published at least twelve articles on
Wheeler's murder between 1995 and 1999. At the time, Patricia (Wheeler's
widow), Pamela (Wheeler's daughter), and Lawrence (one of Wheeler's sons)
were living in Tulsa. David, along with another of Wheeler's sons, Mark, was
living in Texas. Patricia and David stated by affidavit that they recalled reading
some of the Oklahoma press coverage. Lawrence and Mark recalled reading
one or two articles, and Pamela said she did not read any of them.

50

On January 19, 1995, the Tulsa World published a story stating that Brian
Halloran had told the FBI that John Callahan offered him a contract to kill
Wheeler, but that Halloran refused the offer. The article noted that Halloran
was murdered shortly thereafter in 1982. On July 11, 1997, as proceedings in
the Salemme trial were developing, the Tulsa World reported that Bulger and
Flemmi were "potential suspects" in Wheeler's murder and that Flemmi had
executed an affidavit stating that he and Bulger were informants and "were
given free reign from an FBI supervisor to commit any crime as long as they
did not `clip anyone.'" On November 9, 1997, a Tulsa television station
reported that the Wheeler investigation "ha[d] been held up by the FBI's
attempts to bring down the Mafia in Boston" and that "the FBI did not share
information it had about the death of Roger Wheeler Senior." The next day, the
Tulsa World reported that "[i]nvestigators said that the prime suspects in
Wheeler's killing turned out to be two highly placed mob informants, working
with the Boston FBI" and that the "Boston FBI protected their informants,

James `Whitey' Bulger and Steven [sic] `The Rifleman' Flemmi."

51

On May 10, 1998, David Wheeler was interviewed by Ed Bradley on CBS's

"60 Minutes" program. The following exchange was televised:

52

Bradley: David Wheeler, Roger Wheeler's son, says he had trouble

understanding why his father's murder had remained unsolved for so long. Until
he found out Bulger and Flemmi were FBI informants.

53

Wheeler: We've discovered that all along the FBI has been in bed with the
prime suspects in my father's murder.

54

Bradley: So you believe that the FBI protected your father's killers and tried to
prevent the truth from coming out?

55

Wheeler: They not only protected my father's killers, they to this day are
protecting my father's killers and they are to this day withholding information
from the police. This is eighteen years of covering up the crime. This is
eighteen years of being an accessory to murder.

56

At the close of the segment, David Wheeler also said, "In the end, there's one
group, one group of people, that were supposed to help us, and that was the
FBI, and those are the very people that betrayed us, those are the very people
that continue to betray us to this day."

57

During the segment, Bradley said that the "extraordinary relationship between
the FBI and two organized crime bosses," namely Bulger and Flemmi, "may
have allowed the FBI informants to get away with murder." The segment also
contained an interview of Homicide Sergeant Michael Huff of the Tulsa police
department, who said that the Boston FBI had failed to share Halloran's
information with local and federal investigators in Tulsa working on the
Wheeler investigation and that this failure constituted "obstruction of justice."
Bradley also interviewed five detectives from Oklahoma, Florida, and
Connecticut. He stated that these detectives believed the Wheeler murder
remained unsolved "because Bulger and Flemmi were protected by the FBI
while they were providing information on the Italian Mafia in New England."
One detective, David Green, said that the FBI gave Bulger and Flemmi a
"license to steal" and that "apparently that license got a little broader and
covered a homicide."

58

David Wheeler said, by affidavit, that when he accused the FBI of a cover-up

58

David Wheeler said, by affidavit, that when he accused the FBI of a cover-up
on "60 Minutes," he meant only that he had previously been unaware of Bulger
and Flemmi's status as informants and that he "felt as though the FBI should
have shared this information with [him] ... long before this time." He said that
he did not believe at that time that the FBI was responsible in any way for his
father's death and that he had no facts to support such a belief.

59

Patricia and Lawrence said by affidavit that they saw David on "60 Minutes."
Pamela and Mark said, also by affidavit, they did not see David on "60
Minutes" and did not discuss the show with David or anyone else. Mark said
that he was aware that David appeared on the show, but Pamela said that she
could not remember if she had been aware of that fact at the time. The
Wheelers said in their respective affidavits that tensions had arisen in the family
since Roger's murder and that they communicated very little among themselves,
particularly concerning the painful subject of the murder.

60

Following the "60 Minutes" interview, David Wheeler also gave interviews to
the Boston press. On May 12, 1998, The Boston Herald reported that David
Wheeler said that he "has always believed that [former FBI Agent Paul] Rico
facilitated his father's delivery into oblivion" but that he only recently
"discovered that oblivion may well have had names like Whitey and Stevey."
The article noted that David Wheeler said his father thought Rico might be
trying to kill him. The article described Rico as Flemmi's "FBI mentor" and
noted that Rico had recruited Flemmi as an informant. On July 22, 1998, the
Boston Globe interviewed David Wheeler and described him as "now
believ[ing] the FBI has obstructed the investigation into his father's murder."
The article also summarized the testimony of John Morris at the Salemme
hearings in April 1998, noting that Morris had testified that he told Connolly
that Halloran had implicated Bulger and Flemmi in the Wheeler murder
investigation and that Connolly may have passed this information on to Bulger
and Flemmi. On September 29, 1998, the Boston Globe reported John
Martorano, a member of the Winter Hill gang, was negotiating a plea
agreement with federal prosecutors. Describing David Wheeler as "the son of
one of Martorano's alleged victims," the article quoted him as stating that he
would approve of a plea agreement for Martorano because "[t]he people he's
giving up are the people who have enjoyed the protection of the FBI for many
years while committing heinous crimes."

61

By affidavit, David Wheeler said that he had "probably" read these articles, but
Patricia, Pamela, and Lawrence said that they had not, and Mark said that he
did not recall whether he read them.

62

At around the same time, in the summer of 1998, there was Tulsa press

62

At around the same time, in the summer of 1998, there was Tulsa press
coverage of developments in the Wheeler murder. On May 17, 1998, the Tulsa
World published an article with the headline: "When G-men, Mobsters Are
Friends/FBI Ignored Tip-Off on Tulsa Murder." The article summarized
Morris's testimony in April 1998, reporting that Morris had admitted to
receiving cash and gifts from Bulger and Flemmi, and to working with other
agents to "shield[] Bulger and Flemmi from prosecution for 20 years because
they were the most prized secret FBI informants in New England history." A
summary of Morris's testimony was again reported in a July 20, 1998 Tulsa
World article about the Wheeler murder. The article also reported that John
Martorano had agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors and to testify
against Bulger and Flemmi in the Wheeler murder case.

63

On September 9, 1999, after the Wheelers' May 11, 1999 cut-off date for
accrual had passed, Judge Wolf unsealed John Martorano's plea agreement, in
which Martorano admitted that he had murdered Roger Wheeler. Judge Wolf's
September 15, 1999 decision in Salemme described a series of specific incidents
in the early 1980s, before Wheeler's murder, in which FBI agents shielded
Bulger and Flemmi from investigation. 91 F.Supp.2d at 202-06. As to
Wheeler's murder, Judge Wolf found that partly because of irregularities in the
FBI's handling of the files relating to Wheeler's murder, "questions remain
regarding the role, if any, played by Flemmi and Bulger in the Wheeler,
Halloran, and Callahan murders, and the full degree to which the FBI in Boston
has, from 1981 until recently, attempted to keep any such role from being
discerned and demonstrated." Id. at 213. He noted that a pattern of false
statements in Flemmi's informant file diverted attention from Flemmi's crimes
and FBI misconduct, that reports containing Halloran's allegations against
Bulger and Flemmi were not indexed according to usual FBI policy and hence
could not be discovered through a standard search of FBI indices, and that the
FBI had disobeyed discovery orders by its late disclosure of relevant
documents. Id. at 154 n. 3.

64

On December 22, 1999, John Connolly was indicted for racketeering. A

superseding indictment was returned on October 11, 2000. It charged that
Connolly had alerted Bulger and Flemmi to the identity of confidential law
enforcement informants, tipped them off to various law enforcement initiatives,
and failed to report information relating to them that was material to the
investigation of criminal activity in the Boston area. It also charged that
Connolly had obstructed a grand jury investigation into Wheeler's murder and
tipped Bulger and Flemmi to Halloran's cooperation.

65

On September 27, 2000, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging

Bulger and Flemmi with racketeering; two of the predicate acts for the

racketeering charge were the murder of Roger Wheeler and the conspiracy to
commit that murder.
66

The Wheelers filed a notice of tort claim with the FBI on May 11, 2001. After
the FBI failed to respond, the Wheelers filed suit in federal court on March 14,
2002. As in the McIntyre case, the United States moved to dismiss pursuant to
Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) on the ground that the Wheelers had failed to present
their administrative claims within two years of accrual, as required by the
FTCA, 28 U.S.C. 2401(b). On March 31, 2003, the district court granted the
motion, finding that the Wheelers' claim accrued no later than May 10, 1998,
when David Wheeler appeared on "60 Minutes." The court reasoned that David
Wheeler's statements showed that he knew that Bulger and Flemmi were
suspected in his father's murder and that they may have escaped investigation
and prosecution for the crime with the assistance of the FBI. The court then
went on to say that "[i]t does not matter that not all the plaintiffs in this case
were as informed as David Wheeler" because they were in possession of
sufficient facts to place them on inquiry notice. Final judgment was entered on
motion of the Wheelers, who then timely appealed.

II.
A. The FTCA Accrual Standard
67

The FTCA provides, in relevant part, that "[a] tort claim against the United
States shall be forever barred unless it is presented in writing to the appropriate
Federal agency within two years after such claim accrues." 28 U.S.C.
2401(b). Because the FTCA is a waiver of sovereign immunity, it is strictly
construed. Skwira v. United States, 344 F.3d 64, 73 (1st Cir.2003).

68

Normally, a tort claim accrues at the time of injury. Gonzalez, 284 F.3d at 288.
In United States v. Kubrick, 444 U.S. 111, 100 S.Ct. 352, 62 L.Ed.2d 259
(1979), the Supreme Court created a "discovery rule" exception for FTCA
claims involving medical malpractice. The Court held that such claims accrue
when a plaintiff knows of both the existence and the cause of his injury. See id.
at 119-202, 100 S.Ct. 352. The Court determined that accrual does not await the
point at which a plaintiff also knows that the acts inflicting the injury may
constitute medical malpractice. Id. at 122, 100 S.Ct. 352. Distinguishing
between ignorance of the facts (of injury or its cause) and ignorance of legal
rights, the Court reasoned that a claimant, once armed with knowledge of the
fact of injury and the identity of the parties that caused the injury, is no longer
at the mercy of the government. At that point, claimants can go to others, such
as doctors or lawyers, who will tell them if they are victims of malpractice. Id.

The same is not necessarily true of plaintiffs who are ignorant of the facts,
particularly when the government may be in possession or control of the
necessary information.
69

This court has extended this discovery rule to FTCA claims outside the medical
malpractice context. Skwira, 344 F.3d at 74; Attallah v. United States, 955 F.2d
776, 780 (1st Cir.1992). Most circuits also apply a discovery rule to wrongful
death actions. See Skwira, 344 F.3d at 74 (collecting cases).

70

Under the discovery rule, "a claim accrues when the plaintiff discovers, or in
the exercise of reasonable diligence should have discovered, the factual basis
for the cause of action." Gonzalez, 284 F.3d at 288. The test for whether a
plaintiff should have discovered necessary facts is an objective one. Id. at 28889. We look first to whether sufficient facts were available to provoke a
reasonable person in the plaintiff's circumstances to inquire or investigate
further. "A claim does not accrue when a person has a mere hunch, hint,
suspicion, or rumor of a claim, but such suspicions do give rise to a duty to
inquire into the possible existence of a claim in the exercise of due diligence."
Kronisch v. United States, 150 F.3d 112, 121 (2d Cir.1998) (citation omitted
and emphasis added). Once a duty to inquire is established, the plaintiff is
charged with the knowledge of what he or she would have uncovered through a
reasonably diligent investigation. Skwira, 344 F.3d at 77. The next question is
whether the plaintiff, if armed with the results of that investigation, would
know enough to permit a reasonable person to believe that she had been injured
and that there is a causal connection between the government and her injury. Id.
at 78. Definitive knowledge is not necessary. Id. This inquiry is highly fact- and
case-specific, as are the pertinent questions to ask.

71

In Attallah, for example, the plaintiffs learned in September 1982 that the
decomposed body of their courier, who had been transporting almost $700,000
of their money to Puerto Rico, had been found. 955 F.2d at 778. Over four
years later, two Customs agents were indicted for the robbery and murder of
the courier. Id. The court found that the plaintiffs had filed a timely
administrative claim against the United States because their claim accrued
when the Customs agents were indicted, not when the courier's body was
found. Id. at 780. The court focused on the fact that aside from the indictment,
the only information that the plaintiffs had available about the whereabouts of
their courier was a Customs Service document showing that their courier had
been processed at the airport customs office and then left the premises. Id. The
court reasoned that if it took the police until 1987 to discover sufficient
information to bring charges against the Customs agents, the plaintiffs could
not be expected to be more efficient. Id.

72

Another example is the Skwira case, in which a divided court, in three opinions,
found that the plaintiffs had failed to file a timely administrative claim. Skwira,
344 F.3d at 83-86. There, the claim was that a VA nurse had murdered Edward
Skwira, a patient at the Northampton VA hospital, by injecting him with the
stimulant epinephrine. The facts convincing to the majority on the issue of
accrual were as follows. Skwira was admitted to a substance abuse treatment
facility in Worcester, Massachusetts, in early February 1996 for the treatment
of chronic alcoholism and on February 15 was transferred to Ward C of the VA
hospital, where the murderess was working. Id. at 69. Despite the absence of
any reason to anticipate heart problems, he suffered a catastrophic cardiac event
later that day and died on February 18, with heart ailments listed as the
immediate cause of death. Id. By the summer of 1996, articles began appearing
in the Northampton local press describing an ongoing criminal investigation
into the high number of suspicious deaths in Ward C, and the administrator was
quoted as not ruling out foul play. Id. at 68, 80. By September or October of
1996, investigators contacted the families of some of the victims, including
Skwira's, to voice the government's "suspicions" about the deaths and obtained
permission to exhume and autopsy the bodies. Id. at 68. Skwira's autopsy
showed that the death certificate had misstated the cause of death. Id. As the
concurring opinion stated, at that point "a reasonable person would have
believed that some kind of negligence or misconduct by government employees
at the hospital might well underlie Edward Skwira's death." Id. at 85 (Boudin,
C.J., concurring). Had the plaintiffs sought out independent legal and medical
advice at that point, they should have been able to determine in the two-year
period whether to file an administrative claim. See Skwira, 344 F.3d at 81. The
court observed that two other victims' families did file timely claims, whereas
the Skwiras waited three years after the autopsy report before filing. Id. at 82 n.
19.

73

Skwira is instructive in the ways in which it is both like and unlike the two
cases at bar. The differences are obvious. Unlike the victims in the cases at bar,
Skwira was in the sole custody and care of a government hospital and,
overwhelmingly, the most likely malefactor was one of a very limited group of
government employees at that hospital. All of the deaths occurred in the same
place with the same small cast of characters. See United States v. Gilbert, 229
F.3d 15, 18 (1st Cir.2000) (the deaths in Ward C of the VA hospital occurred
over a six-month period). There was also certainty the patients were dead,
unlike in McIntyre's situation.

74

The chief similarity between the two cases at bar and Skwira is that there was a
government investigation into possible wrongdoing in all three cases. But the
circumstances of the investigation here were different than in Skwira. There,

the government came to the family with its suspicions of wrongdoing at the
hospital and explained the factual basis for those suspicions. 344 F.3d at 68.
The government then helped develop the evidence of wrongdoing, informing
the family that the cause of death reported was different than that found in
Skwira's autopsy. Id. By contrast, in the two cases at bar, the government did
not inform the plaintiffs of any investigation, appears to have held the facts
revealed in its investigation confidential, and ultimately claimed to have cleared
its agents of wrongdoing before the critical dates for accrual purposes.5
B. Application to McIntyre's Claims
75

The claims made by the estate of McIntyre are based on two interrelated
theories of how the FBI caused McIntyre's death: (1) by leaking his
confidential informant status to Bulger and Flemmi, in violation of a special
duty of non-disclosure owed to him by the government, and (2) by protecting
Bulger and Flemmi from investigation and prosecution, thus enabling and
emboldening them to murder him. As we understand the second theory, it is
meant to buttress the first theory; it is perhaps also meant to serve as an
independent basis for liability. 6 The first theory, which we understand to be the
predominant one, arises out of a special duty that the government has to
confidential informants who would be endangered if their informant status were
revealed to others, particularly those whose activities are the subject of the
informant's disclosures. The FBI Manual requires agents to exercise constant
care to ensure that an informant's identity is not disclosed, whether
intentionally or inadvertently. Salemme, 91 F.Supp.2d at 150; see also
Leonhard v. United States, 633 F.2d 599, 614 (2d Cir.1980) ("The procurement
of testimony against alleged members of organized crime will normally require
appropriate protection of both the informant and his family."); Socialist
Workers Party v. Attorney Gen. of United States, 458 F.Supp. 895, 907
(S.D.N.Y.1978) ("[T]he FBI asserted that it owed the duty of confidentiality to
the informants to protect them from embarrassment and harm."), vacated on
other grounds, In re Attorney Gen. of United States, 596 F.2d 58 (2d Cir.1979).
Because we find that the plaintiff could not reasonably be expected to have
discovered the facts supporting the first theory until after May 25, 1998, we
find that the case was not properly dismissed and therefore reverse.

76

The plaintiff's predominant theory depends on the following reasoning:

77

1. McIntyre was cooperating with the government in its investigation of Bulger

and Flemmi, which imposed a duty on the FBI;

78

2. McIntyre was murdered;

78

2. McIntyre was murdered;

79

3. Bulger and Flemmi were responsible for the murder;

80

4. McIntyre was murdered because Bulger and Flemmi learned he was

informing on them to government authorities;

81

5. It was agents of the FBI, Connolly and/or Morris, who told Bulger and
Flemmi that McIntyre was cooperating with the FBI.

82

The district court focused on the first three parts of this sequence only. This did
not go far enough. The key missing links are the fourth and fifth points. We
focus on the fifth: whether a reasonable person in the McIntyres' position, after
conducting a diligent investigation, would have uncovered a sufficient factual
basis to believe, before May 25, 1998, that the FBI was the source of the leak to
Bulger and Flemmi. We conclude that he or she would not have.

83

Certainly before May of 1998, the McIntyre family knew of facts that would
permit a reasonable person to believe that Bulger and Flemmi were responsible
for the killing of John McIntyre in 1984 and that Bulger and Flemmi were FBI
informants. In our view, that was not enough to trigger accrual, in light of the
nature of McIntyre's claims.

84

A June 1997 Boston Globe article, described in our review of the facts, reported
that witness statements and other evidence supported the conclusion that Bulger
and Flemmi had McIntyre kidnapped, tortured him to find out what he had told
the authorities, and then murdered him. Implicit in this report was that Bulger
and Flemmi had somehow found out McIntyre was an informant. But the article
never even mentioned the possibility that the FBI had disclosed this
information to Bulger and Flemmi or had otherwise given its imprimatur to the
murder.

85

Furthermore, the McIntyres were also faced with the government's affirmative
denials of any wrongdoing in the relationship between Bulger and Flemmi and
FBI agents Morris and Connolly. The government repeatedly denied
wrongdoing in Boston Globe articles from 1988 through 1995, and one article
reported that an internal FBI investigation had cleared the two agents. Then, a
December 5, 1997 Boston Herald article stated that the Department of Justice's
Office of Professional Responsibility had investigated and "cleared the FBI
handlers [Morris and Connolly] of [wrongdoing involving] informant gangsters
Whitey Bulger and Stephen Flemmi." Faced with a denial of wrongdoing by the

FBI itself, and lacking any basis to controvert the denial other than rumor, the
McIntyres did not have a reasoned basis to believe that it was the FBI that had
leaked McIntyre's identity as an informant to Bulger and Flemmi.
86

We turn to the question whether there was later information between the
December 5, 1997 denial of wrongdoing by the FBI and May 25, 1998 that
provided notice of that missing link. The district court found such an event
based on testimony by Agent Stutman, the former local chief of the DEA, in the
Salemme hearings on April 15, 1998. Because Emily McIntyre attended part of
those hearings, the court attributed to her knowledge of Stutman's statements
that he and agents in his office suspected that the FBI had compromised their
investigation of Bulger and Flemmi but had no facts to confirm their
suspicions. Even assuming that statement provided a reasoned basis to believe
that the FBI had compromised the DEA's investigation, perhaps by tipping
Bulger and Flemmi to listening devices or warning them of raids, it does not
provide a reasoned basis to believe that the FBI leaked McIntyre's informant
status to Bulger and Flemmi.

87

The government points to a different event: an April 23, 1998 Boston Herald
story reporting that the previous day, Morris had testified that in 1982, he told
Connolly, who in turn told Bulger and Flemmi, the identity of FBI informant
Brian Halloran, who had informed authorities that Bulger and Flemmi tried to
hire him to kill Roger Wheeler. The government argues that this information
that the FBI had leaked to Bulger and Flemmi the identity of a different
informant, as to a different crime, at a different time provided sufficient facts
for a reasonable person to believe that the same thing had happened to
McIntyre. The government argues that if there was evidence Bulger and
Flemmi killed Halloran because the FBI told them Halloran was an informant,
then a reasonable person could have inferred that Bulger and Flemmi also
killed John McIntyre based on a similar FBI leak. The government's analogy
overreaches both as a matter of logic and as a matter of fact.

88

Even assuming arguendo that the Boston Herald article was enough to lead the
McIntyres to suspect that the FBI leaked McIntyre's identity, and thus to trigger
a duty to inquire, a reasonably diligent investigation would still not have
revealed the necessary factual predicate for their claim before the accrual date.
Most avenues of investigation were cut off by the possibility of criminal
liability for any FBI agents and others involved. Attempts to gain information
through depositions would likely have been thwarted by invocations of the
Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. And other information
such as testimony before the grand jury or facts discovered in the
government investigation was hidden behind a veil of secrecy. In this sense,

the McIntyres had even less access to critical information than most FTCA
plaintiffs. See Kubrick, 444 U.S. at 122, 100 S.Ct. 352 (adopting a discovery
rule in part because "the facts about causation may be in the control of the
putative defendant, unavailable to the plaintiff or at least very difficult to
obtain").
89

Without more specific information than provided in the Boston Herald article, a
reasonable person could not have had a basis to claim that the FBI betrayed
McIntyre's cooperation to Bulger and Flemmi. Bulger and Flemmi apparently
murdered people for many reasons. Some of those people were informants. But,
without more, one cannot reasonably deduce from a victim's informant status
(1) that Bulger and Flemmi knew the victim to be an informant, (2) that, if
Bulger and Flemmi knew the victim to be an informant, they murdered the
victim for that reason, and (3) most importantly, that even if Bulger and
Flemmi murdered the victim for being an informant, the source of their
information as to the victim's informant status was the FBI. One could not
reasonably infer, for purposes of FTCA accrual, from Morris's testimony about
Halloran that the FBI told Bulger and Flemmi about every informant in their
organization or that Bulger and Flemmi killed every person that they knew to
be informing against them, regardless of the circumstances.

90

Drawing a direct parallel between the murders of Halloran and McIntyre is

particularly difficult because the situations were so different. The cases
involved different and unrelated underlying crimes that took place at different
times and in different places: the Wheeler murder was in 1981 in Oklahoma and
was related to control of a Jai Alai empire, whereas the Valhalla gun-running
operation was in 1984 in Boston for the IRA. Moreover, Halloran arguably
posed a greater threat to Bulger and Flemmi as an informant than McIntyre did.
As Bergeron noted, and as Bulger and Flemmi might well have been aware,
McIntyre was "petrified" of the two and was unlikely to come forward publicly
or, by implication, to testify. McIntyre was a low-level operative in a gunrunning operation, whereas Halloran was a hit man with the power to implicate
Bulger and Flemmi for murder. Another factual difference is that there was
some indication, as the prosecution itself argued in Salemme, that McIntyre's
cooperation was known to those outside the government, and thus that Bulger
and Flemmi could have discovered this information from some source other
than the FBI. A January 29, 1995 Boston Globe article reported that "[r]umors
that McIntyre was talking [to the federal government] were rampant" at the
time.

91

The government's own behavior further undercuts its argument here that there
were sufficient facts before May 25, 1998 to reasonably infer that FBI had

betrayed McIntyre. In response to a defense objection during the crossexamination of Bergeron in the Salemme hearings on June 4, 1998, the
prosecution said that "there's literally a dozen people" outside the FBI who
knew of McIntyre's cooperation and could have passed the information to
Bulger and Flemmi. The prosecutor argued that Judge Wolf "shouldn't infer
that there was some leak from the FBI that led to Mr. McIntyre's
disappearance" because the evidence was too speculative. That, of course, is
directly contrary to the position of the United States as stated in the case at bar:
that before May of 1998, the McIntyres not only should have drawn exactly that
inference but should have acted on it by seeking legal and other expert advice
about filing an FTCA claim.
92

In the June 1998 Salemme hearings, after the critical date for accrual purposes
had passed, the prosecution also sought to establish in its questioning of
Bergeron that McIntyre had spoken to authorities about a number of notorious
individuals, as well as the IRA, "[a]ll of whom would have had a motive to
make him disappear." This casts further doubt on whether Bulger or Flemmi
had caused McIntyre's disappearance, making even more remote the inference
that the FBI had leaked McIntyre's identity as an informant and caused his
murder.

93

This government position in June of 1998 is significant for several reasons. It

shows that there was a real basis to question whether it was at all reasonable to
infer that Connolly had disclosed McIntyre's dual role to Bulger. We have no
reason to think the federal prosecutor's position in Salemme was taken in bad
faith. The prosecution, which had access to confidential information and was in
possession of far more facts than members of the public, argued to the court
that it could not reasonably make such an inference. The McIntyres, who were
in a far worse position to access or evaluate information, should not be required
here to draw such an inference. See Attallah, 955 F.2d at 780 ("The police did
not have sufficient information to bring charges against the [relevant
government officials] until 1987. We believe [plaintiffs] could not have been
more efficient.").

94

Equally importantly, the prosecutor's position in June of 1998 was yet another
expression by the United States in a public forum that Connolly had not leaked
McIntyre's identity and no wrongdoing had occurred.

95

Our decision in Skwira hurts rather than helps the government's position. The
United States in Skwira told the plaintiff that there was cause to investigate
suspicious deaths of patients who were within the sole custody of a VA
hospital when they died and did not deny wrongdoing. 344 F.3d at 80. Here,

the government kept confidential its investigation of claims of misconduct by

Connolly and Morris and ultimately reported in 1997 that it found no
wrongdoing. Even Judge Wolf had great difficulty in prying loose coherent
information about McIntyre's death by the date of his opinion on September 15,
1999. Judge Wolf commented that the question of whether the FBI disclosed
McIntyre's identity could not "be resolved on the present record" because of the
government's delayed disclosure of documents and its desire to avoid bringing
to light the circumstances surrounding McIntyre's death. Salemme, 91
F.Supp.2d at 215.
96

We reverse the dismissal of the claims by McIntyre's estate and remand.

C. Application to the Wheeler Case

97

The cut-off date for the accrual of the Wheelers' claim, filed on May 11, 2001,
is May 11, 1999. The district court concluded that their claim accrued on or
before May 10, 1998 when David Wheeler appeared on "60 Minutes."

98

The Wheeler case is based on a fundamentally different legal theory than the
McIntyre case. Unlike the McIntyre case, which is based on duties arising from
the government/informant relationship, the Wheelers' claim is not based on any
direct relationship between Roger Wheeler and the FBI. The theory of liability
is, as a result, much more indirect than that in the McIntyre case.

99

The Wheelers have styled their Mass. Gen. Laws. ch. 229, 2 and 6 wrongful
death claims against the United States as based on both direct and vicarious
liability. They assert that the United States is vicariously liable for the actions
of Connolly, Morris, and other agents, which provided Bulger and Flemmi with
a "protective shield" against prosecution and investigation that gave the two
criminals the opportunity to commit crimes and emboldened them to do so,
proximately causing Wheeler's murder. The Wheelers also assert that the
United States is directly liable for failing to prevent Wheeler's murder, in light
of the foreseeable risk that Bulger and Flemmi would continue to engage in
violent criminal activity. In addition, the Wheelers assert a generalized count
against the United States for intentional infliction of emotional distress based
on Wheeler's murder.

100 For the Wheelers' claims to accrue, there had to be facts available that would
permit a reasonable person to conclude (1) that Bulger and Flemmi were
instrumental in the murder of Roger Wheeler; (2) that Bulger and Flemmi were
informants for the FBI; and (3) that the FBI had a special relationship with

Bulger and Flemmi that protected and encouraged them in their criminal
activity, including Wheeler's murder.
101 The Wheelers clearly had sufficient notice of the first two sets of facts before
the May 11, 1999 accrual date. On April 22, 1998, Morris testified that Bulger
and Flemmi were valuable FBI informants and that he was afraid he had sent
Halloran to his death by telling Connolly that Halloran was alleging that Bulger
and Flemmi had tried to hire him to kill Wheeler. Morris's testimony on this
point received national press attention. It was summarized in two Tulsa World
articles on May 17, 1998 and July 20, 1998 and in a July 22, 1998 Boston
Globe article that quoted David Wheeler. In addition, a July 20, 1998 Tulsa
World article and a September 29, 1998 Boston Globe article, which quoted
David Wheeler, both reported that John Martorano was negotiating a plea
agreement with federal prosecutors and had implicated Bulger and Flemmi in
the Wheeler murder. In addition, as the district court fairly pointed out, David
Wheeler stated on the May 10, 1998 "60 Minutes" show that Bulger and
Flemmi had caused his father to be murdered, that the two were FBI
informants, and that the FBI was "in bed" with the two.
102 What proves fatal to the Wheelers' claim is that they were also on notice of the
third set of facts. We sidestep the dispute about whether David Wheeler meant
his statements on "60 Minutes" to indicate that the FBI had protected Bulger
and Flemmi from prosecution and thus enabled and emboldened them to
murder his father. Other statements on the "60 Minutes" show should have
made clear the special relationship between the FBI and Bulger and Flemmi.
Ed Bradley reported that the "extraordinary relationship" between the FBI and
Bulger and Flemmi "may have allowed [them] to get away with murder." A
detective interviewed for the segment was even more explicit, describing
Bulger and Flemmi as having a "license" from the FBI to commit crimes that
"covered a homicide."
103 In addition, separate from the "60 Minutes" show, there was national and local
news coverage before the critical date describing the FBI's shielding of Bulger
and Flemmi from prosecution. At least some of those articles should have
caught the Wheelers' attention, because they specifically referenced Roger
Wheeler's murder and even, in several instances, quoted David Wheeler.
104 Two Tulsa World articles on July 11, 1997 and January 9, 1998, both of which
specifically mentioned the Wheeler murder, reported that Flemmi was claiming
in the Salemme proceedings that the FBI gave him and Bulger immunity from
prosecution for their ongoing criminal activities in exchange for information
about organized crime activities. The July 11 article specifically noted that

Flemmi had executed an affidavit stating that he and Bulger had been given
"free reign from an FBI supervisor to commit any crime" short of murder. On
May 10, 1998, the same night that the "60 Minutes" segment ran, a local Tulsa
news station, KOTV, reported that the FBI had tipped Bulger and Flemmi to
Halloran's cooperation in the Wheeler murder investigation and that Boston FBI
agents may have taken bribes from Bulger and Flemmi.
105 In the summer of 1998, two Tulsa World articles and one Boston Globe article
that quoted David Wheeler reported that Morris admitted that the FBI had
shielded Bulger and Flemmi from prosecution for twenty years because they
were prized informants. The Tulsa World article was entitled "When G-men,
Mobsters Are Friends/FBI Ignored Tip-Off on Tulsa Murder." All three articles
specifically mentioned the Wheeler murder. Morris's testimony was also picked
up by the national press, with coverage in May and June of 1998 from the
Associated Press, the Salt Lake Tribune, the Charleston Gazette & Daily Mail,
the L.A. Times, and the Seattle Times.
106 In the summer and fall of 1998, following the "60 Minutes" segment, David
Wheeler himself drew the connection between his father's murder and the FBI's
special relationship with Bulger and Flemmi in his comments to the Boston
press. In a May 12, 1998 article headlined "Dad's execution mystery no more to
anxious son," the Boston Herald described David Wheeler as saying in an
interview that he "always believed" that former FBI agent Paul Rico
"facilitated" his father's murder at the hands of Bulger and Flemmi. Wheeler
also told the Boston Globe on September 29, 1998 that John Martorano's
cooperation would expose "people who have enjoyed the protection of the FBI
for many years while committing heinous crimes."
107 The Oklahoma press and television coverage, the information revealed on "60
Minutes," and David Wheeler's interviews with the Boston press are sufficient
to establish that David Wheeler was clearly on notice before the May 11, 1999
critical date.
108 The issue is whether the other family members, in their different positions,
could reasonably be expected to be aware of this information. The district court
focused on David Wheeler and attributed his knowledge to all. We disagree
with that methodology: the "knew or reasonably should have known" question
must be asked individually, as to the information available to someone in each
plaintiff's situation. There is a difference between "knew" and "should have
known." A plaintiff could, at least in theory, have actual knowledge of critical
facts even though he or she would not otherwise be reasonably expected to
know them. As to whether a plaintiff "reasonably should have known" critical

facts, the inquiry is an objective one: whether a reasonable person similarly

situated to the plaintiff would have known the necessary facts. See Skwira, 344
F.3d at 80 (the "degree of knowledge of injury and cause that would prompt a
reasonable person to take ... protective steps will vary with the circumstances of
the case"); cf. Rodriguez Narvaez v. Nazario, 895 F.2d 38, 41 n. 5 (1st
Cir.1990) (describing a similar constructive knowledge test, used to determine
accrual of federal civil rights claims, as whether "a reasonably prudent person
similarly situated" should have known the necessary facts).
109 Where there are several plaintiffs and they do not live in the same geographical
area, and public notice of the underlying facts is restricted to certain areas,
geography is a factor to be considered. Geography may be particularly relevant
where, as here, notice is based on local television and press coverage.
Similarly, where, as here, some members of the family have actual notice but
others do not, the issue of how strong the family's ties are and how frequently
they communicate can be relevant. A plaintiff who is estranged from other
more knowledgeable family members is differently situated than one who
speaks with his or her family every day.
110 Despite this leeway, the record here establishes that each of the Wheelers had
available sufficient facts to raise suspicions provoking a reasonable person to
inquire further. See Phillips Exeter Academy v. Howard Phillips Fund, Inc.,
196 F.3d 284, 288 (1st Cir.1999) (this court "may affirm the judgment for any
independent reason made manifest in the record"). Had the Wheelers inquired
further, the requisite facts were present in the Boston and Oklahoma television
and press coverage to allow a reasonable person to infer a causal connection
between the FBI's actions and Roger Wheeler's murder.
111 Patricia Wheeler (Roger's widow) saw the "60 Minutes" program in May 1998
and some of the Oklahoma press articles; they were sufficient at least to trigger
a duty to inquire before the May 11, 1999 critical date, painful as the subject
was to her. The same is essentially true of Lawrence Wheeler, one of Roger's
sons.
112 Pamela Wheeler Norberg (Roger's only daughter) did not see the "60 Minutes"
segment. She has stated by affidavit that she did not read any of the press
coverage in the record on the painful subject of her father's murder, and that she
is estranged from her brothers and communicates with them only infrequently.
While her claim presents a closer case, we find that she had a duty to inquire
based on local and national press coverage. "[W]here events receive ...
widespread publicity, plaintiffs may be charged with knowledge of their
occurrence." United Klans of Am. v. McGovern, 621 F.2d 152, 154 (5th

Cir.1980) (national news coverage over networks, wire, and newspapers

reported that defendant held press conference admitting facts supporting the
claim); see also Hughes v. Vanderbilt Univ., 215 F.3d 543, 548 (6th Cir.2000)
(front-page stories in two local newspapers and a major television network gave
rise to constructive knowledge, even though plaintiff said she did not see the
coverage). Although we recognize that the question of whether a reasonable
person in Pamela's position would have read news coverage is a fact-intensive
inquiry and can sometimes be difficult to resolve on a motion to dismiss,7 we
find that, on the facts of this case, the record is sufficient to establish notice.
Local news coverage in Tulsa, where Pamela lived, was extensive and
mentioned Roger Wheeler specifically by name, often in the lead paragraph of
the story. Furthermore, nothing in the record shows that Pamela was estranged
from her mother, who did watch the "60 Minutes" show and read at least some
press coverage. A reasonable person in Pamela's situation would have been
provoked to inquire further; had she done so, she would have filed a claim
earlier.
113 Mark Wheeler, the youngest son, lives in Texas and did not see the "60
Minutes" show, although he was aware that his brother would be appearing on
it. He stated by affidavit that he read only one or two of the articles in the Tulsa
press and that he communicates only infrequently with his family because of
tensions arising from his father's murder. He presents an even closer case than
Pamela because he lived in Texas and the television and press coverage in the
record appeared mostly in either Boston or Tulsa sources. But we find that he
too had a duty to inquire, which if pursued, would have led him to file his claim
earlier. He was aware of the "60 Minutes" show and, by implication, of
national news coverage of his father's murder. He had access to Tulsa news, as
demonstrated by his reading of at least one or two articles in the Tulsa
newspapers on the subject of his father's death, so if he had inquired further, he
could have learned the necessary facts through that medium.
114 The claim of equitable tolling of the two-year limit fails, to the extent that such
a claim is cognizable against the government at all.8 It is true that the FBI had a
long history of denying that Bulger and Flemmi were informants, that there was
any "special" relationship between the FBI and the two, and then that any
impropriety resulted from the relationship. For purposes of equitable tolling,
however, the government's denials were superseded when Morris testified in
April 1998 in the Salemme hearings that he and Connolly shielded Bulger and
Flemmi from prosecution and that they may have been responsible for
Halloran's death.
III.

115 The dismissal of the claim against the United States in the McIntyre case is
reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this
opinion. The dismissal in the Wheeler case is affirmed.

Notes:
1

We refer to the plaintiff in this case as McIntyre

Specifically, the estate asserted legal theories of (a) conspiracy to protect

Bulger and Flemmi from arrest and prosecution as a proximate cause of
McIntyre's kidnapping, torture and execution in violation of McIntyre's First,
Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights; (b) violation of those same Fourth and
Fifth Amendment rights, stated as claims underBivens v. Six Unknown Named
Agents, 403 U.S. 388, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971); and (c) wrongful
death, in violation of Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 229, 2, 6.

Both the Wheeler and McIntyre administrative claims also included claims that
FBI agents had obstructed and impeded the investigation of the respective
murders. But in their suits in federal court, both sets of plaintiffs raised cover-up
claims only against individual FBI agents, not against the United States itself

We refer to the estate and individual plaintiffs in this case as the Wheelers

The plaintiffs here do not argue that the pendency of a government

investigation should automatically toll accrual of their claims. That argument
was rejected inSkwira, which found no statutory basis for such tolling. See 344
F.3d at 85-86 (Boudin, C.J., concurring).

To the extent that the plaintiff does intend the second theory as an independent
basis for liability, the United States is free to challenge the availability of that
theory on remand

See Bibeau v. Pac. Northwest Res. Found., Inc., 188 F.3d 1105, 1110 (9th
Cir.1999) (additional factfinding necessary to determine if press coverage
would have reasonably put a similarly situated plaintiff on notice); Orlikow v.
United States, 682 F.Supp. 77, 85 (D.D.C.1988) (more factfinding necessary
for accrual of FTCA claim because "[n]ewspaper articles containing allegations
do not necessarily place citizens on notice when there is no evidence that these
articles were read").

Compare Irwin v. Dep't of Veterans Affairs, 498 U.S. 89, 94, 111 S.Ct. 453,
112 L.Ed.2d 435 (1990) (stating that equitable tolling applies in Title VII suits

against the government on the same terms as it would against a private

employer), with United States v. Beggerly, 524 U.S. 38, 49-50, 118 S.Ct. 1862,
141 L.Ed.2d 32 (1998) (holding that equitable tolling does not apply to actions
under the Quiet Title Act, 28 U.S.C. 2409a, for reasons that could also apply
to the FTCA).